This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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Notice a trend? Those who are opposed to health care reform in the U.S. must have confidence that free market forces will somehow close that gap in the near future. Or maybe the chart is bogus, and the health care affordability gap is propaganda.

Will sends us "a site of avowed atheists who will, for a nominal fee, look after your pet when you have taken in the rapture."

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

We are currently active in 20 states and growing. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet's natural life.

Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama's Placenta

In the continuing controversy surrounding the president's U.S. citizenship, a new fringe group informally known as "Afterbirthers" demanded Monday the authentication of Barack Obama's placenta from his time inside his mother's womb. "All we are asking is that the president produce a sample of his fetal membranes and vessels—preferably along with a photo of the crowning and delivery—and this will all be over," said former presidential candidate and Afterbirthers spokesman Alan Keyes,

I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a travel boycott by others of the state of Arizona; I want to learn more about Arizona's gun laws and how they compare with those of other states. But I am shocked beyond measure by reports that earlier this week, nearly a dozen persons, including one with an assault rifle strapped about his shoulders and others with pistols in their hands or holsters, were openly congregating outside a hall at which President Obama was speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.

According to the Phoenix, Arizona, police, people with guns including assault rifles do not need permits in Arizona, but can simply carry such weapons with them, openly and brazenly, when they gather to protest a speaker at a public event. The police also acknowledge that about a dozen people carrying guns, including one with an AR-15 assault rifle, milled about outside the event at which President Obama spoke.

I would feel as I do regardless of the political identity of the speaker whom these thugs attempted to intimidate. The continued tolerance of extremists carrying guns is a frightening development which strikes at the heart of the political process and endangers the ability to carry out a reasoned debate. Is there any responsible citizen of the United States who believes that people should carry guns to a public debate or speech? If Ronald Reagan were delivering a political talk in Phoenix, Arizona, would they have felt it was proper for protestors with guns to mill about outside the hall from which he would leave?

Whatever, unless you're a golfer or college student looking to score drugs and easy ass, there's really no need to visit Arizona anyway. So good on you Arthur Frommer.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Bushies were all nuts and incompetent - the proof just doesn't stop coming. From Daily Kos.

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

The AP reported earlier this month that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R-LA) administration is planning to request $300 million dollars from the federal government to develop a high-speed rail between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The trains, which would run at about 79mph, would be part of a larger Gulf Coast rail plan with top speeds of 110mph. Much of the money, however, comes from the Recovery Act, a stimulus measure Jindal not only opposed, but recently called a failure.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

A U.S. Army officer compared the Iraqis' fledgling independence to that of a "'16-year-old who just got his license and doesn't want to listen anymore but still wants you to pay for the gas and the insurance and bail them out of jail' when they mess up."

Also from The ACLU. Click here to jump to their "Take Action" web page.

Earlier this year, the economic stimulus bill contained mandates for converting paper health records into electronic data systems and called for strong privacy protections of those records.

But now, as the Department of Health and Human Services writes the detailed regulations to guide this process, there's a real risk that your privacy won't be protected after all.

That's because powerful special interests are lobbying heavily for regulations that give hospitals and insurance companies -- not patients -- control over how personal medical information is used. This could leave you with no process for blocking access to critical information such as the results of HIV/AIDS tests and eventually, no way to correct false information in your medical records or see who is reviewing those records.

Events are moving quickly. So now is the time to make your voice heard. Send a "protect my privacy" message to Dr. David Blumenthal, the HHS official in charge of this process.

This brightened my day. It comes from an e-newsletter sent out by the ACLU to its members.

Breaking News: Judge Orders ACLU Client Freed from Guantánamo Bay

Today -- in a Guantánamo detainee case the ACLU has pursued for several years -- a federal judge ordered one of the deepest injustices at that infamous detention facility brought to an end.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle gave the Justice Department until August 21 to release Mohammed Jawad from Guantánamo and transfer him to the custody of the Afghan government, which has indicated that it is prepared to receive Jawad immediately and unconditionally.

Judge Huvelle made clear that Mr. Jawad has been illegally detained, and the government has no credible evidence to continue holding him. We are pleased that the Justice Department has expressed a commitment to getting him home so that this nightmare of abuse and injustice can finally come to an end.

In its last term, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus. And now, by representing Mr. Jawad in his habeas case, the ACLU has helped end his lawless detention.

Following his 2002 arrest in Afghanistan for allegedly throwing a grenade at two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter, Jawad was subjected to repeated torture and other mistreatment and to a systematic program of harsh and highly coercive interrogations designed to break him physically and mentally. At one point, Jawad tried to commit suicide in his cell by slamming his head repeatedly against the wall.

Last fall, a military judge in Jawad's Guantánamo military commission proceeding threw out the bulk of the evidence against him finding that it was obtained through torture. And recently, the Afghan Attorney General sent a letter to the U.S. government demanding Jawad's return and suggesting he was as young as 12 when he was captured in Afghanistan and illegally rendered from that country nearly seven years ago.

Now finally, seven years of illegal detention are about to come to an end.

With your help, the ACLU will build on this important victory against illegal detention and lawless government actions until respect for human rights and the rule of law is fully restored.